Majority of Israelis support expanding the war to Lebanon - What else do they think? - Poll

The Center for Jewish Impact in partnership with the Geocartography Knowledge Group unveiled The Israeli Society Barometer project on Saturday, highlighting the changes in Israeli and Jewish public opinion on topic issues over time. 

Through amplifying Israeli society’s perspectives, the Center hopes to provide insights to better inform embassies, international organizations, and partners of the Center.

The project began collecting data in June, surveying 500 adult Israeli respondents from across Israeli society.

The survey asked 5 questions, which will be repeatedly asked again 4-5 times in the same year. Through doing this, the project can track in-time changes in public opinion.

Key findings of the project so far

The majority of Israelis (71%) disagreed with the statement that ‘in the coming months, living in Israel will be better.’

Despite the majority of Israelis seemingly holding pessimistic views of the future, men and religious individuals were more positive about the future.

Despite the pessimistic outlook of 71% of the respondents, only 29% said they are considering relocation. 

The Center stressed that while over a quarter of respondents said they were considering relocation, there is a large gap between those who would act upon it and those just considering it. Only 1% of respondents are in the process of relocating abroad and 8% have considered relocating but changed their mind in the past few months.  

The majority surveyed (73%) said that expanding the war to Lebanon was necessary, even at the cost of a ground invasion. Northern residents were more likely to express this belief.

The survey also asked respondents if they felt there had been a change in the relationship between Israel and the Diaspora. Nearly half of the respondents (47%) said they felt Israel and the Diaspora have grown apart in recent months while 35% said they felt that a closer relationship had been established.